Tips for night photography. (Canon, Nikon, Sony, camera)
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So tonight was the Christmas parade. I went to it and took some pictures, then afterwards, we went and took a few pics of light displays. Lets just say, I wasn't too pleased with the way my pictures came out. Then again, I'm not too experienced with night pictures, so they might be decent pictures. I have read several websites and I realize that night photography can be very difficult. I also read many suggestions on how to take good night pictures, but am just curious if you all will have different tips. Maybe all light pictures just look kinda blurry. I recently bought a new point and shoot camera...it's a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H70. I am very pleased with the daytime pictures it produces. I also do not own a tripod. Below are a few of the pictures I took. I am pleased with the way the bottom picture turned out, but that could be because there weren't many lights involved with it. Aside from the pictures below, I had several come out that were very blurry, but that could have been from me messing around a bit with the manual mode.
Again, I'm not too experienced with night pictures, so these could be decent. But to me, they look kinda...blah? Any tips on possible ways to improve the outcome of night pictures would be greatly appreciated.
You need to use a tripod. The reason the last one is sharper is because it's a 1/25s shutter speed. All the other ones are around 1/8s to 1/4s, which is too slow for hand-holding.
Definitely get a tripod if you plan to do it more often. Also, if you don't have a remote for your camera you can use the timer to avoid moving it when you press the shutter, which can happen even on a tripod. If you don't have a tripod handy, you can still get by if you are able to find something solid to set the camera upon. I don't like to carry around my tripod most of the time, and I've successfully gotten some slow shutter speed pictures by rest my camera on a fence, post, stair railing, etc. If the object is sturdy enough, you may not even need to worry with the timer. And sometimes I can make do just by bracing myself against a wall and being extra careful. But if I'm using my tripod, I always use the timer.
Any tips on possible ways to improve the outcome of night pictures would be greatly appreciated.
The number one recommendation would be a tripod, and for this even a cheap one would make a big difference. Set the camera up, using manual mode, and trigger the shutter with the self timer to avoid rattling everything with your touch. Take lots of shots, and change the shutter speed or aperture a little each time.
It's hard to decide which exposure is right because light sources tend to be very bright compared to everything else that is reflecting light. Hence if you reduce the exposure to get a nice looking string of Christmas lights, everything around it is nearly black, but if the interesting surroundings are exposed bright enough to show up the lights are clipped highlights that aren't as good as they could be.
There are at least two "easy" solutions to that. One is to pick exactly the right time of the evening, just as the natural light matches the intensity of the light strings. With long twilight times here in the Arctic that's easy to do, but for those on the equator there is about a ten second window! :-) The same effect can be had with a flash though, so that's probably easier. An off camera flash is very nice. Again, it's hard to predict exactly what the results will be, so shoot lots of pictures with many variations.
In addition to a tripod, I recommend a remote shutter release. You can hit that button without having to wait for the timer to kick in. My personal preference is one that operates on radio frequency (RF) as opposed to infrared (IR). The latter requires a line of sight to kick in, the former does not. I can recommend a site if interested, offshore but reliable and inexpensive.
In addition to a tripod, I recommend a remote shutter release. You can hit that button without having to wait for the timer to kick in. My personal preference is one that operates on radio frequency (RF) as opposed to infrared (IR). The latter requires a line of sight to kick in, the former does not. I can recommend a site if interested, offshore but reliable and inexpensive.
One was for my Panasonic FZ50 and one now for the Canon T1i. Have not had to change batteries yet after almost 2 years. Takes a while since it is out of HK, but it always comes, and never a problem with billing or customer service.
I almost confused your camera with Sony H9V which has a feature that would allow you to take those shots better (and handheld). The camera in that case would take six consecutive shots at high ISO and combine them. With H70, using a monopod or tripod would be your best bet.
One was for my Panasonic FZ50 and one now for the Canon T1i. Have not had to change batteries yet after almost 2 years. Takes a while since it is out of HK, but it always comes, and never a problem with billing or customer service.
sorry if you misunderstood...linkdelights sell tons of camera stuff! just compared some items with your site....much more spendy~
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